Computer networks, and especially the Internet, have allowed people to use computer systems to communicate data. One way in which computer systems communicate data is by sending documents electronically. Some software applications have allowed computer systems to transfer documents or other data quickly. With the fast transfers of data, people can interact in near real-time to data or documents being shared between two or more computer systems. An example of these near real-time interactions occurs in web meetings where two or more users in distant areas interact with and react to data transferred between their computers. In some web meetings, users also discuss the data over the phone while exchanging the electronic data between the computer systems.
Unfortunately, it is very difficult in many situations to focus on a portion or piece of data that is being viewed on the two or more remote computer systems. The web meetings are not in person, and normal human interactions such as pointing to, gesturing to, or drawing on a physical document are not possible. Thus, users generally must permanently alter the document during a web meeting and send the edits to the participants to highlight or draw the attention of the participants to a certain portion of the document. The edits “dirty” the document by permanently changing the documents format or appearance. Either after the meeting or later in the meeting users are forced to methodically erase the edits used to “highlight” portions of the document. The “dirtying” of documents does not fairly duplicate the normal human interaction and wastes time in undoing the edits. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.